m 



m 





I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,! 

Chap. ... 
Shelf . 




Ml 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



INDIANA HISTORlCAi'. SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS. 

V<)i-i;.\\i; II. iNUMBhi-; ti. 



THE RANK 



CHARLES OSBORN 



ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEER. 



GEORGE W. JULIAN. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 
THK T.()AVK>y'-MKliKJLL (n^rPANY. 

is'.n. 



INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



HON. W. II. ENi.l.HlI, ri;i>i|.K^ 
(iFA'. .10H\ COHi l;\. 1-1 \i( r.-l 
\VM. W. AYOOLl.KN 'I' \i' i-i'i:i- 
.H.'UGE D, W. HOW i:, :;i. \i. i.-l- 
W. l)i:M. HOOl'EK, Ti:i:A.srKEH. 
.1. I'. IMNN, Jk., Ke. oi:d:ng Si.. 



INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAMPHLETS 

No. 1. The Laws and Courts of Norlhwest and Indiana Territories. 

i;y Daiii.^l Waitc Ilow^-. 

N.".-:. The Life and Services of Jolin B. Dillon. r.> < leu. .i.^lni C.-i. m n 
Mild .ludgt- Horace P. Biddle. 

No.:;. The Acquisition of Louisiana. B.v .iu<igr Tlhu., , . M - 

No.l. Lougliery's Defeat and Pigeon Roost IVlassacie. : ■ 
Martindalf. 

No. :.. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Official Publications of the 
Territory and State of Indiana from 1800 to 1890. I'.y 
liaiiiel Waite Ilowr. 

No.l,. The Rank of Charles Osborn as an Anti-Slavery Pioneer. 

I'.y (ioni-c W. .lulian. 

TIm-^,- pinnplilcls arc iH-iiitr-l ;iih1 soM Imi-iIm. ]„'uriU ,d' t in' .liidi- 
aii.-L Ui-l.u-ical SiK'i.'ty. It is tin- purpusr of I lie Society to |)ubli?li, 

If lime to time, ol/licr oi-i'iinal iiapers, ami ti> n'jjrint rare an<l 

\aliiaMc ilocumeiils rclatin.u lo tii.' Iiistorv ol' ilie Siute. With a view 
I.illic ucn,.r.il circulalioii ol' its puhlieatioiis. llicywill l.c issued in 
ele.'ap lorm, llie price cliar._'cil for llicn; lu-iiej: for llc^ piiriioseof ,ic- 
frayiiiu llie cxi)eiise uf |ml>lii.'al ion , 

.\. 1.. l;o.\. iiK, \\-. I)i:M, llo:,ri:i:, 

.\. C. II \i;i;is, .1. I'. I'l .x.v, .Ii:., 

.1. U. Wm.so.n. 

/-.'o .-,//;,, ( ■,,,,,„, :iir, . 

I ■iii.li^Uc-d i.ii.l H.ol.1 l.\- 



THE BOWEN-nERRILL CO. 



INDIA.NAF'OI.IW, IXO. 



INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS. 

7 VOLUMH 11. NUMBliR H. 



THE RANK 



CHARLES OSBORN 



ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEER. 



^ GEORGE W. JULIAN. 



^^^^ 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

THE BUWEN-MEKRILL CO.AirANY. 



(f)5f/ 



In the Jutej-national Review for June, 1882, I endeavored 
to show the unfaithfulness of current history in dealing 
with the genesis of modern abolitionism, and that justice 
has been strangely denied to a faithful anti-slavery pioneer 
who was a citizen of Indiana during the latter part of his 
long life. In the number of this Review for September 
following, Mr. Oliver Johnson earnestly combated my 
positions, and the controversy was closed by my rejoinder 
in the number for November. The question discussed is 
full of historic interest, and in the following paper I have 
dealt with it more fully, and, I think, conclusively. I re- 
spectfully submit my views to our State Historical Society 
as a slight contribution to the work it has in charge. 

G. W. J. 



CHARLES OSBORN. 



In just so far as the interests of humanilv transcend 
those of country and race the phihinthropists and reform- 
ers who devoted their lives and fortunes to the overthrow 
of American slavery are more worthy of honor than the 
patriots who toiled for national independence and the lib- 
erty of white men. Tt is therefore gratifying to notice the 
steadily growing disposition in all directions to do fitting 
honor to the pioneers and heroes of the anti-slavery strug- 
gle in the United States. Oliver Johnson's book, entitled 
" Garrison and the Anti-Slavery Movement," has ap- 
peared in a second edition, and is charmingly written by 
an intimate friend and fellow-laborer in the cause, who 
naturally displays his unbounded admiration for its great 
moral leader. A far more voluminous life of Mr. Garri- 
son has since been given to the public b}- his children, 
which is also an admirable history of the great movement 
of which he was so long the recognized head. Elizur 
Wright, himself an able, faithful and time-honored pio- 
neer, prepared and published a few^ years ago an interest- 
ing sketch of Myron Holley, one of the earliest leaders 
and champions of organized political action against slav- 
ery, and a man of singular rectitude, ability, courage and 
eloquence, Hon. E. B. Washburne is the 'author of a 
well-deserved life of Edward Coles, the anti-slavery gov- 
ernor of Illinois, who successfully resisted the establish- 
ment of slavery in that state, in the years 1823-24, by a 
scheme of organized border rufluinism akin to that which 



4 THE RANK OF 

in later years came so near making Kansas a slave state. 
General William Birney has just honored himself by pub- 
lishing a life of his father, James G. Birney, the distin- 
guished leader of the Liberty party and its candidate for 
president in 1840 and 1844. There is yet wanting an ade- 
quate life of Benjamin Lundy, whose perfect disinterest- 
edness, self-denying zeal and absolute devotion to human- 
ity entitle him to the highest place on the calendar of 
anti-slavery pioneers. Still other lives are yet to be writ- 
ten, and although a trustworthy history of the anti-slaverj'- 
movement can not be expected till we are further from the 
strifes and passions with which it was unavoidably con- 
nected, yet it is not too soon to insist upon justice and fair 
play in dealing with its real founders and apostles. 

Our accepted histories and manuals agree in according 
to William Lloyd Garrison the honor of first proclaiming, 
on this side of the Atlantic, the doctrine of "immediate 
and unconditional emancipation." They also agree in 
awarding to Benjamin Lundy the credit of publishing the 
first anti-slavery newspaper of this century, and of being 
the pioneer abolitionist of the United States. These state- 
ments are now received w'ithout question, and supported 
by Johnson's "Life of Garrison," Greeley's " History of 
the American Conflict," Wilson's " History of the Rise 
and Fall of the Slave Power," Von Hoist's " Constitutional 
and Political History of the United States," and various 
other authorities. It is the chief purpose of this paper to 
controvert these alleged facts, and to show that Charles 
Osborn, an eminent minister in the Society of Friends, 
proclaimed the doctrine of immediate and unconditional 
emancipation when William Lloyd Garrison was only nine 
years old, and nearly a dozen years before that doctrine 
was announced by Elizabeth Heyrick, in England ; and that 
Mr. Osborn also edited and published one of the first anti- 
slavery newspapers in the United States, and is thus en- 



Cn.UlLES OSBORX. - 

titled to take rank as the real pioneer of American aboli- 
tionism. These statements may appear surprising, but, if 
true, they should be so recognized. If the current of his- 
tory has been diverted into a false channel, it should be 
turned into the true one. The story of the great conflict 
should be made thoroughly accurate and trust worth}'. 
When a great victory has been won, ever}^ general should 
have his due share in the honor of its achievement, and, 
if the heroism of any brave man has been slighted, and the 
fact can be shown by newly discovered evidence, the rec- 
ord of the battle should be made to conform to the truth. 
It can scarcely be necessary to say that I have no desire 
whatever to do the slightest injustice to Garrison and 
Liundy. Their exalted place as heroes in the grand armv 
of human progress is irreversibly established ; and Garri- 
son and Lundy themselves, if living, would be the last to 
deny to a fellow-laborer in the great cause the share of 
honor he had fairly earned in its service. 

Before proceeding with my task, let me briefly sketch 
the principal facts of the life of Charles Osborn. It ap- 
pears, from the published journal of his travels, that he 
was born in North Carolina, on the 2ist of August, 1775. 
In his nineteenth 3'ear he removed to Tennessee, where 
he made his first appearance in the ministry about the 
year 1806. He soon took rank as a preacher of consider- 
able gifts, and traveled and preached extensively in North 
Carolina and Tennessee, taking an active part in the anti- 
slavery societies of these States. He removed to Mount 
Pleasant, Ohio, in 18 16, where he published a religious 
and reformatory newspaper, and continued his work in 
the ministry. In 1819 he settled in Indiana. He took 
an active and leading part, as an orthodox Friend, in the 
movement against Elias Hicks and his followers, and after 
this made a religious visit to Great Britain and a part of 
the continent. He sat at the head of the yearly meetings 



6 THE RANK OF 

of this country for about the third of a century, and the 
like honor was accorded him, though unsought, by Friends 
on the other side of the Atlantic during his sojourn among 
them. From his earliest years he was known as a thor- 
ough-going abolitionist, and an abstainer from the use of 
slave-grown produce ; and, in his later life, he became in- 
volved in a controversy with his society on the slavery 
question, which resulted in his separation from it in testi- 
mony of his unflinching devotion to the slave. 

Respecting Mr. Osborn's connection with the doctrine 
of immediate and unconditional emancipation, I submit the 
following facts : 

I. In the month of December, 1814, he took the lead in 
organizing the "Tennessee Manumission Society." It 
was formed at the house of Elihu Swain, his father-in-law, 
and its object was the immediate and unconditional man- 
umission of the slaves. Rachel Swain, now known as 
Rachel Davis, a daughter of Elihu Swain, still survives, 
and resides in Wayne county, Indiana, and she says she 
was present at the organization of the society, and knows 
the facts I have stated. I have personally known her many 
years, and know her to be an entirely trustworthy witness. 
It is true she is now very old, and the facts to which she 
bears witness happened a long time ago ; but while the 
memory of old people touching recent events is very un- 
trustworthy it is vivid as to those of childhood and early 
life. Moreover, her statements are corroborated by per- 
sons still living, whose names I shall presently mention, 
and who form a connecting link between that early period 
and the present. From them I learn the character of the 
first manumission societies of Tennessee and North Caro- 
lina. Their mission was not political but moral. Slaver}' 
had not then found its way into politics. Their appeal was 
to the individual. Like the Garrisonian abolitionists of a 
later day they taught the sinfulness of slavery and the duty 



CHARLES OSnORN. y 

of immediate repentance. Let me add that in 1852, when 
Mrs. Davis was only fifty years old, she united with the 
vSociety of Anti-Slavery Friends, of which she was then a 
member in witness of the facts she now afih-ms. 

2. My second witness is Rev. John Rankin, a native 
of Tennessee, where he resided till the year 1817. He 
then removed to Kentucky, and afterwards to Ohio, where 
he died a few years ago, at the age of ninety-odd years. 
Few men are more widely known to the anti-slavery pub- 
lic. He founded the Western Tract Societ}^ at Cincin- 
nati, for the purpose of supplying the countr}- with anti- 
slavery information. He was one of the first lecturers sent 
out by the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he 
was also one of the founders. As preacher, writer and 
lecturer, he was most honorably known. He was an un- 
compromising abolitionist from his youth up, and he 
preached his doctrines boldly from the pulpit at a very 
early day, both in the South and in the North. He says 
the manumission society referred to proclaimed the 
doctrine of immediate emancipation, and that after his re- 
moval to Kentucky he proclaimed it to large congregations. 
In 1824, after his removal to Ohio, he published a series 
of letters setting forth the sinfulness of slave-holding, and 
avowing the same principle. These letters were published 
in book form in 1825, and w^ere printed in the Liberator. 
That Mr. Garrison was well pleased with the book is 
shown by the followdng inscription on the fly-leaf of a 
volume of his own writings, which he presented to Mr. 
Rankin : 

"Rev. John Rankin, with the profound regards and 
loving veneration of his anti-slavery disciple and humble 
co-worker in the cause of emancipation, William Lloyd 
Garrison." 

To this evidence of Mr. Rankin T now add that of his 
brother, Dr. A. T. Rankin, w^io has recenllv made the 



8 THE RANK OF 

public statement that John Rankin preached immediate 
and unconditional emancipation as early as the year 1817. 
His letters to me on the subject, with those of his brother, 
are before me. It should be remembered, also, that ac- 
cording to the first volumne of Henry Wilson's " History 
of slavery," page 178, at a meeting of the American Anti- 
Slavery Society in New York, years ago, John Rankin 
made the same statement respecting his early and public 
espousal of immediate emancipation. 

But I do not rest the case here, and shall show the trust- 
worthiness of Mr. Rankin's recollection by his letters 
already referred to, written in the year 1824, and pub- 
lished in book form the year following. As an arraign- 
ment of slavery this book is as terrible as it is just. He 
shows it to be a curse to both master and slave, a horrid 
conspiracy against marriage and the family, an outrage 
upon the inborn rights of man, a blight and a blast upon 
every community in which it exists, a loathsome mocker}^ 
of the very principle of free government, and a palpable 
violation of the express law of God. The writer of such 
a book who religiously believed what he wrote, as did 
John Rankin, could never have tolerated the thought of 
postponing the duty of emancipation for a day or an hour. 
But putting aside the general character of the book, I 
propose to remove all doubt or cavil by particular extracts 
from its pages. I quote from page 34 of the third edition, 
printed at Newburyport, Massachusetts : 

"And here I must remark upon one main objection to 
the emancipation of the slaves : it is that they are, in con- 
sequence of the want of information, incapacitated for 
freedom, and that it is necessary to detain them in bond- 
age until they may be better prepared for liberation. But 
from the preceding remarks it is abundantly evident that 
they are now better prepared with respect to information 
for emancipation than they will be at any future period, 



CHART.ES OSBOIiX. p 

and that less inconvenience and danger would attend tlieir 
liberation at present than at any future time. It must be 
obvious to every one capable of discernment that the in- 
convenience and danger of emancipation will increase in 
proportion as slaves become more numerous. Indeed, all 
the difliculties that attend emancipation are rapidly in- 
creasing, and they must certainly be endured at some 
period, sooner or later; for it is most absurd to imagine 
that such an immense body of people, most rapidly in- 
creasing, can always be detained in bondage, and, there- 
fore, it is much better to endure those difficulties now than 
it will be when they shall have grown to the most enor- 
mous size." 

I quote also the following on page ii6: 

" We are commanded to do justly and love mercy, and 
this we ought to do without delay, and leave the conse- 
quences attending it to the control of Him who gave the 
command. We ought also to remember that no excuse for 
disobedience will avail anything when He shall call us to 
judgment." 

If this does not clearly inculcate the dut}' of immediate 
emancipation, words have no meaning or were made to 
deceive. The reasonableness and credibility of Mr. Ran- 
kin's statement are made evident by some kindred facts, 
and I refer to them for the purpose of still further showing 
how completely mistaken are those who assume that no- 
body in this country announced the doctrine in question 
prior to Mr. Garrison, in 1829. In 1824 Rev. James Dun- 
can proclaimed it in his book entitled "A Treatise on 
Slaver}'." In December, 1825, Lundy published in the 
Genius of Universal Emancipation., Elizabeth Hey rick's 
famous pamphlet, "^Immediate, not Gradual Emancipa- 
tion." In the same issue of the paper I find a vigorous 
article, in which the principle is clearly asserted and 
argued. The name of the writer does not appear, because 



lO THE JtAXK OF 

the article seems to be one of a series, and I have not been 
able to find the preceding and following issues of the paper. 
I quote the following passage : 

"The slave has a right to his liberty — a right which it 
is a crime to withhold — let the consequences to the planters 
be what they may. * * * The cause of emancipation 
calls for something more decisive, more efficient, than 
words. It calls upon the real friends of the poor, degraded 
African to bind themselves by a solemn engagetnent, an 
irreversible vow, to participate no longer in the crime of 
keeping him in bondage." 

The same doctrine is declared, with still greater precis- 
ion and emphasis, in an article published in the Genius for 
August 5, 1826. It bears evidence of having been written 
by a Presbyterian minister. After insisting that slavery 
is a crime, he says : 

" What has God told you about crime, or sin? To de- 
sist from it, or persevere? To desist. When? Now ! Now ! ! 
Yes, mortal, He never gave man or angel a moment to 
consider — a minute to wait for the alteration of affairs, or 
for more favorable circumstances. If we are required to 
do right, we are required to do it immediately." 

The subject of immediate emancipation is likewise dis- 
cussed in the Genius for October, 1822, by Benjamin Lundy 
himself, in reply to a writer who has inveighed against the 
terrible consequences which would result from it, thus show- 
ing that tlie idea was then in the minds of men. Mr. Gar- 
rison, in all probabilit}-, read the articles to which I have 
referred at the time of their appearance, as he had read 
Rankin's book ; but whether he did or not I have made it 
certain that he was not first in announcing the principle of 
immediate emancipation in this country. 

3. In the year 1841 Mr. Osborn, as I shall hereafter have 
occasion to show, gave offense to his society by his earnest 
and uncompromising espousal of the doctrine in question ; 



CH MILES OSIIOIIX. II 

and the well-known Levi CoHiii. in his ])uhlished volume 
of " Reminiscences/" on page 231, referrino- to that period, 
says that Mr. Osborn " preached no new doctrine, had 
experienced no change, but followed the same course and 
advocated the same anti-slavery doctrine he had for forty 
years." He further says, on page 265, that he publicly 
advocated immediate and unconditional emancipation in 
Ohio in 1816. Mr. Coffin knew him in his youth, and gave 
these testimonies from his personal knowledge. As a 
philanthropist Mr. Coffin is very widely known and worthily 
remembered. His devotion to humanity was a passion, 
while in the matter of integrity he was as guileless as a 
little child. It will not do to say that his old age weakens 
the value of his testimony ; for although he was an old man 
when he wrote his " Reminiscences," he had given the 
same evidence, as I shall show, in the 3'ear 1843, when in 
the prime of life, and only removed some twenty-odd years 
from the time when Mr. Osborn's manumission society in 
Tennessee was formed. He is a competent and credible 
witness, and his evidence must be accepted as true or suc- 
cessfully impeached. 

4. In a printed document published in 1843, reviewing 
certain proceedings of the Indiana yearly meeting in deal- 
ing with Mr. Osborn, the following statement is made: 
" It is well known that the sentiments of Charles Osborn 
in relation to this subject (slavery) are the same now they 
were more than twenty-five years ago." This is signed 
by Daniel Puckett, Walter Edgerton, II. II. Wa}', Jacob 
Graves, John Shugart, and Levi Coffin — all perfectly re- 
liable men, and three of them, namely, Puckett, Way and 
Coffin, were intimately acquainted with Mr. Osborn and 
his anti-slaver}' position during the period covering his life 
and labors in Tennessee and North Carolina-. I personally 
know all these to have been perfectly trustworthy witnesses 
and intelligent men. They were leaders in the religious 



12 THE RANK OF 

society to which the}^ belonged, and none of them were 
then beyond the meridian of life. 

5. After the death of Mr. Osborn a memorial of his life 
was drawn up and adopted by the Society of Anti-Slavery 
Friends, to which he belonged, in March, 1852. That 
memorial refers to his leadership in the formation of manu- 
mission societies in 1814, and declares that, " in endeavor- 
ing to lay the foundation principle of these societies, he, at 
that earl}^ day, advocated and maintained the only true and 
Christian ground — immediate and unconditional emanci- 
pation." After this memorial was drawn it was submitted 
to the monthly meeting, and, according to the practice in 
all such cases, was scrutinized before its approval. It then 
had to be sent to the quarterly meeting, composed of the 
members of the different monthly meetings, and again ex- 
amined and passed. It was then forwarded to the meeting 
for sufferings, composed of representatives from each of the 
quarterly meetings, composing the yearly meeting, and a 
certain number to represent the latter. This body of men 
again examined and approved it, after which it was read 
in the yearly meeting before the members of the society, 
en masse, who approved and adopted it. In these several 
meetings were such men as Levi Coffin, William Beard, 
Henry H. Way, Enoch Macy, Jonathan Swain, Thomas 
Frazier, Daniel Puckett, Isaiah Osborn, William Hough, 
Walter Edgerton, Benjamin Stanton, John Shugart, Jacob 
Graves, and various others, man}^ of whom were personally 
and intimately acquainted with Charles Osborn and his 
labors in the manumission cause in Tennessee and North 
Carolina. They were men of the highest character for in- 
tegrity, and could not have been induced to sit by and 
approve statements about which they were well informed 
if they were false. In my earlier life I knew all these men, 
and I entertain not the shadow of a doubt as to the perfect 
accuracy of their statements. 



(JIIAULES OS BORN. 1 3 

6. The manumission movement in Tennessee awakened 
uneasiness among the slave-holders, some of whom 
thought it would be good policy to attach themselves to it 
as members. In a moment of weakness, and on consid- 
erations of expediency, the constitution of the society was 
so changed as to permit this ; and this led to a further 
compromise, by which the name of the society was 
changed to that of " Manumission and Colonization So- 
ciety." Mr. Osborn was present when these changes 
w^ere proposed and adopted, and gave them his decided 
opposition. In the language of the Quakers of a later 
day, he believed "the full enjoyment of liberty to be the 
right of all, without any conditions," and could not " con- 
sent, upon any conditions, that the bondage of a fellow- 
being shall be prolonged for a single day," nor "say to 
him he must go to Hayti, to Liberia, or any other place, 
to entitle him to the full enjoyment of liberty." The facts 
respecting these changes in the policy of the manumission 
movement and Mr. Osborn's opposition are given on the 
authority of his early friends and anti-slavery associates, 
already referred to, and are more particularly set forth in 
Edgerton's " History of the Separation in Indiana Yearly 
Meeting of Friends," published in 1856, and in Mr. Os- 
born's "Journal of His Travels and Labors in the Minis- 
try," published in 1854. 

7. In enumerating these proofs I ought to make more 
special and emphatic mention of Mr. Osborn's hostility to 
African colonization. He avowed this in his youth, and 
never afterward faltered. The fact is as honorable to him 
as it is remarkable that, while the leading abolitionists of 
England and the United States were caught in this snare, 
he was never for a moment deluded by an\^ of its plausi- 
bilities. His moral vision detected its character from the 
beginning. "Emancipation," he declared, "was thrown 
into the cradle of colonization, there to be rocked and 



14 THE RANK OF 

kept quiet until the last slave-holder should become 
willing to send his human chattels to the colony." 
Benjamin Lundy and other anti-slayery men discussed 
it as a scheme of gradual emancipation, and as such Mr. 
Osborn always understood it. He opposed it because it 
postponed the freedom of the slaves and placed conditions 
in its way. This subtle scheme of imposture and inhuman- 
it}' became a national organization in the beginning of the 
year 1817, and became at once the great stalking-horse of 
slavery. It darkened the air, palsied the public con- 
science, and balked all efforts looking to immediate eman- 
cipation. It draped over the abomination of slavery, and 
debauched the judgment of the country. Like Aaron's 
rod, it swallowed up all else. It was the grand 
stumbling-block of philanthropy, and the colossal false- 
hood of the generation. There was but one thing for a 
thoroughly earnest anti-slavery man to do, and that was to 
fight it. This Mr. Osborn did, single-handed. He girded 
himself for battle against the most formidable and insi'di- 
ous foe of freedom that had ever stood in its path. He 
was a doer of the word from his youth, and I have a right 
to define his position by the unambiguous testimon}' of his 
life. 

It is not pretended, of course, that Mr. Osborn ex- 
pected that the slave-holders would immediately emanci- 
pate their slaves. Without the intervention of a miracle 
this was impossible. The work of emancipation could 
only go forward under the inevitable conditions by which 
it was complicated. It had to become an educational 
process before it could be realized in fact. This was Mr. 
Garrison's idea, for he had no thought of emancipation by 
force. What Mr. Osborn preached to the slave-holder 
was the doctrine of immediate repentance, and that he had 
no right to put off that repentance to a more convenient 
season. That was his well-known position in 1830, when 



CHARLES OSBOIiX. I^ 

the anti-slavery agitation began seriously to disturb tlie 
peace of the country ; and the Indiana yearly meeting, 
which could not endure this doctrine in 1842, never dis- 
puted the fact that he had at all times avowed it. If it be 
said that it was well known that the honor of lirst proclaim- 
ing this doctrine in this countr\^ was ascribed to Mr. Gar- 
rison by his friends, and that Mr. Osborn would have con- 
tested this claim if he had felt himself entitled to make it, 
I reply that he was a traveling minister among Friends, 
engrossed in his peculiar work, and may have known 
nothing of the matter. It is quite as reasonable to suppose 
him ignorant of the claim made by the friends of Mr. Gar- 
rison as to suppose the latter ignorant of Mr. Osborn's 
well-known record as an immediate emancipationist. In 
justice to him it should also be said that he was too mod- 
est to blow his own trumpet, and too much absorbed in his 
work to concern himself about its honors ; and that if this 
had been otherwise he had no motive to enter into any 
strife over the question. The champions of immediate 
emancipation, when it first began to stir the countr}-, and 
during the life of Mr. Osborn, were obliged to make them- 
selves of no reputation. They were cast out of all the 
synagogues of respectability, and little dreamed of the 
honors with which they were finally crowned. Mr. Os- 
born, therefore, could have had no selfish inducement to 
contest the claim of Mr. Garrison, while either of them 
would doubtless have been glad to know that the other 
had avowed this sound and saving principle. 

Before leaving this branch of my subject, I must notice 
the surprising effort of Oliver Johnson to dispose of the 
evidence I have submitted. He asserts that if the doctrine 
in question had been proclaimed at the time mentioned 
" it would not have failed to arrest public attention, and 
throw a broad light over the whole country." Wlien it 
was announced by Garrison, he' says, " it was like a re- 



1 6 THE TIANK OF 

volving light on a headland, casting its rays afar over the 
raging sea." He says "the whole land was startled into 
attention ; the slave-holders were alarmed, and thenceforth 
had no peace," and that " it is morally certain that it 
would have been so in Tennessee if that light had been 
kindled there." My reply is that I am debating a ques- 
tion of fact, and, having conclusively shown that Mr. Os- 
born (f/ic/ proclaim this doctrine in 1814, the question about 
the consequences which Mr. Johnson says would have fol- 
lowed concerns him quite as much as me. But I will meet 
his argument directly, and expose its complete fallacy. 
This fallacy is found in the unwarranted assumption that 
public opinion in the South was as intolerant and inflam- 
mable in 1814 as it became in 1830 and the following years. 
This is notoriously not the fact, and it is marvelous that 
one so familiar with anti-slavery history as Mr. Johnson 
did not remember it. John Rankin is my authority for the 
statement that while he was a young man a majority of 
the people of east Tennessee were abolitionists, and I have 
already quoted his testimony that he afterwards preached 
immediate emancipation to large congregations in Ken- 
tuck3^ His brother, in a recent letter to me, confirms this 
testimony, and says that he frequently supplied a book- 
seller in Maysville, Kentuck}', with copies of John Rank- 
in's radical book already referred to, and that the State 
Abolition Society favored immediate emancipation. I have 
already quoted from articles in Lundy's Genius for 1825 
and 1826 in favor of immediate emancipation, and I think 
no mob followed their publication. In 1826 the American 
convention for the abolition of slavery was held in Balti- 
more, representing 81 societies, 71 of which were in the 
slave States.' In 1827 there were 130 abolition societies 
in the United States, of which 106 were in the slave-hold- 



Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, page 170. 



CHARLES OS BORN. ly 

ing States, and only 4 in New England and New York. 
Of these societies, 8 were in Virginia, 11 in Maryland, 2 
in Delaware, 2 in the District of Columbia, Sin Kentucky, 
25 in Tennessee, and 50 in North Carolina.' These so- 
cieties were no doubt largely the result of the labors ot 
such men as Charles Osborn and Benjamin Lundy. Anti- 
slavery feeling was widely diffused, and although it was 
not very intense, and the subject of slavery was discussed 
without passion, the people seemed to be honestl}'^ in search 
of some method of escape from its evils. These historic 
facts show why it was that from 1814 to 1830 the proclama- 
tion of immediate emancipation failed to startle the coun- 
tr}-. It was the Southampton Insurrection of Nat. Turner, 
in Virginia, in 183 1, and indications of insurrections in 
other States the same year, which fired the Southern heart, 
swept these societies out of existence, and inaugurated 
" the reign of terror" in the South which lasted till its 
overthrow by the power of war. Then it was that the bat- 
tle-cry of immediate emancipation became the trumpet of 
alarm, and signalized the advent of the irrepressible con- 
flict. In Mr. Garrison the word became flesh, for the 
nation was entering upon a new dispensation, and the 
hour and the man had met, Samuel Adams preached in- 
dependence many years before it electrified the colonies. 
He was the real father of the revolution ; but he was 
obliged to bide his time till the multiplying exactions of 
the mother countr}- finally prepared the people for the con- 
flict, and to write on their banners that " Taxation without 
representation is tyranny." No man is strong enough to 
wrestle with the logic of events. 

I come now to the proof of my statement that Mr. Osborn 
edited and published the first anti-slavery newspaper in 
the United States, and is thus further entitled to the honor 



Poole's Anti- Slavery Opinions before iSoo, page 7; 

2 



1 8 THE RANK OF 

of being counted the pioneer of latter-day abolitionism. 
My task will not be difficult, and it will supply some cor- 
roborative proof of his anti-slavery position. We have 
seen that he removed to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in 1816. 
In that year he issued his prospectus for a weekly news- 
paper to be called the Philanthropist, and published at that 
place; and on the twenty-ninth of August, 1817, the first 
number was issued. Its publication was continued till the 
eighth of October, 1818. The tone of the paper was ear- 
nestly moral and religious. He devoted its columns con- 
siderably to the interests of temperance and peace, but the 
burden and travail of his heart was slavery. I speak by 
authority, having the bound volumes of the paper before 
me. It was just such a paper as Elijah P. Lovejoy was 
murdered for publishing in Illinois twenty years later. 
Benjamin Lundy, then residing at St. Clairsville, was one 
of its agents, as the paper shows. The subject of slavery 
is discussed from eighty to ninety times, making an aver- 
age of nearly twice in each weekly number. It was in 
the beginning of this year that the American Colonization 
Society was organized, with its headquarters at Washing- 
ton, and the several anti-slavery societies then existing in 
this region of Ohio were all in favor of colonization as a 
scheme of gradual emancipation, as were those throughout 
the country generally ; but Mr. Osborn disagreed with 
them. He opposed the scheme in repeated editorials, but 
allowed both sides of the question to be heard. Various 
articles were admitted favoring the policy of gradual 
emancipation, but not a line was written by himself in its 
approval. The limits of this article will not permit nu- 
merous or lengthy quotations from the paper, but I offer a 
few as specimens of its general character, beginning with 
the editorials. On page 44 of the first volume is the fol- 
lowing on colonization : 

" Without in anywise wishing to forestall public opinion. 



cirARr.Es osnnnx. lo 

or give a bias against the intentions of the American Col- 
onization Society, the editor has great doubts of the justice 
of the plans proposed. It appears to him calculated to 
rivet closer the chains that already gall the sons of Africa, 
and to insure to the miserable objects of American cruelty 
a perpetuity of bondage. The free persons of color in the 
city of Philadelphia have protested against being sent back 
to a soil which separation and habit have combined to ren- 
der disagreeable to them. The communication which fol- 
lows is inserted because the author's intention is believed 
to be good, and because every investigation of the subject 
will tend to open the eyes of the public to the situation of 
this people. Those who have traveled through the South- 
ern States, and observed the ignorance and vice with which 
slavery has enveloped the children of Africa, can hardly 
be persuaded that they are now fit instruments for propa- 
gating the Gospel." 

On page 37 is the following : 

"A correspondent says the coast of Africa has been 
robbed of its natives, who have with their sweat and blood 
manured and fertilized the soil of America. If their de- 
scendants are now (by way of reparation) to be forced 
back to that country, whose customs and whose soil are 
equally repugnant to them — query, are the thieves or the 
restorers most justifiable? " 

In the second volume, on page 69, is a strong editorial 
on the slave trade and slavery. After referring to the ac- 
tion of England and Spain in dealing with this subject, it 
concludes : 

" But much remains to be done. The system of slavery 
is acknowledged on all hands to be an evil of the greatest 
magnitude ; and it will require a degree of energy com- 
mensurate with the effects it has upon society to counteract 
its baleful influence, and now is the time for the advocates 
of freedom to e.\ert themselves to overthrow that colossal 



20 THE RANK OF 

fabric of despotism. Let the enlightened philanthropists 
of either hemisphere continue to carry on the benevolent 
work until they have finally accomplished the same, and re- 
ceive the just reward of their labors, the grateful acknowl- 
edgements of millions of their fellow-mortals, whom they 
behold emerging from the gloomy caverns of despair and 
assuming the rank among the sons and daughters of men 
to which they are entitled by the laws of niture. In the 
language of one of the greatest orators of the present da}^ 
they will then have the satisfaction to know that through 
their instrumentality a large portion of their fellow-crea- 
tures are, politically speaking, ' redeemed, regenerated, 
and disenthralled by the Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
tion.' " 

It will occur to the reader as altogether probable that 
the name of Lundy's paper, which was started several 
years afterward, was suggested to him by this editorial. 
I quote the following from the editorial columns on page 

*'A planter in the upper part of Georgia went down to 
Charleston to purchase slaves. A cargo had just been 
landed. They were set up at auction, declared to be 
sound in wind and limb, and were struck off to the highest 
bidder. This planter purchased his complement, and the 
driver conducted them off. On the way to Augusta one 
of the women accidentally saw the man who had been her 
husband in Africa. The dissevered pair immediately rec- 
ognized each other, and their feelings at this unexpected 
meeting may be conceived by those who are acquainted 
with conjugal affection. The owner of the husband was 
moved at the scene, and proposed either to sell or buy, 
that the poor creatures might live together on the same 
plantation ; but the other, hard-hearted man, would do 
neither. They, of course, were soon parted ; the woman 
was conducted up the country, and soon after died of 
grief." 



rjTAnLESi OSBORX. 21 

This is one of sundry articles on the same subject de- 
picting acts of cruelt}^ similar to those with which every 
reader of Uncle Tom's Cabin is familiar. In the same 
volume, on page rSi, is an able and thorough article on 
colonization, from which I make brief extracts : 

" On entering into this investigation we should bear in 
mind that we have long been called upon (and the present 
moment calls loudly) to cease to violate the laws of God 
and nature in holding our fellowmen in a state of bondaire. 
It is the slaves who are suffering the most consummate 
misery, and it is the melioration of their condition which 
demands our first attention. Whatever laudable schemes 
may be formed for promoting civilization on the continent 
of Africa, or whatever benevolent designs may be enter- 
tained for the benefit of the free people of color on this side 
of the Atlantic, or whether these enterprises are directed 
by a sound or a visionar}^ philosophy, it is not m}^ present 
purpose to inquire. The great object still is to devise some 
system by which slavery may ultimately be terminated. 
If African colonization is not directed to this object, or 
capable of effecting it, we are still left to find some other 
expedient." 

The article then proceeds to show, b}' facts and figures, 
the utter impracticability of the colonization scheme, and 
concludes : 

" It is true that the plan might produce one very striking 
effect — it might amuse our minds with the mistaken idea 
of doing something valuable, until that Almighty Being 
who observes the conduct of nations and of individuals 
may in his wisdom and justice deprive us of the opportun- 
ity of being the instruments in so laudable a reformation 
by taking the great work into his own hands. And here 
my mind is forcibly struck with the sentiment of one of 
our greatest men : ' When I reflect that God is just, and 
that his justice can not sleep forever, I tremble for the fate 
of mv country.' " 



22 THE RAXK OF 

These samples will indicate the decided anti-slavery 
character of the paper, while its communications and se- 
lected matter will make this equally evident. The first 
issue contains three selections, one of which, being very 
brief, I quote : 

*' ' I am astonished,' said an intelligent Turk, 'that the 
Americans should send a fleet to compel the surrender of 
slaves in our possession, when, in their own country, they 
keep thousands of Africans in bondage. They had better 
clean their hands before they lift them toward heaven.' " 

On page i8 is an earnest letter on slaver}^ from Anthony 
Benezett. On page 32 is an address from a member of the 
North Carolina Manumission Societ}^ of the most radically 
anti-slavery type. On page 35 is an obituary notice of 
Paul Cuffe, a successful colored merchant and a man of 
signal benevolence and enterprise among his race. On 
page 37 is a strong article, probably written by Benjamin 
Lundy, over the signature of PhVo Jush'cm, and a capital 
letter from Joseph Doddridge, from which I quote the fol- 
lowing : 

" Can we charge the most sore-handed despotisms in ex- 
istence with anything w'orse than the personal slavery of 
the African race in our country? No ! Even in the pirat- 
ical states of the Barbary coast, if the Christian slave turns 
Musselman, he is free. Amongst us, if the slave becomes 
a Christian brother, he, nevertheless, still remains a slave." 

Passing several brief articles, we find on page 76 the 
beginning of a lengthy one, by an intelligent colored man 
named William Blackmore, who discusses the question 
with considerable ability. In the course of it, in referring 
to the enemies of his race and their tribulations in the dy- 
ing hour, he frames for them the following pra3'er : 

"Almighty and incomprehensible Being ! Thou know- 
est a part of Thy creation, the negroes and molattoes, 
have long been objects of our contempt ; and we have 



CHARLES OS BORN. 23 

even until this day been occasionall\^ tormented with a 
sight of their black faces. We have seen man)^ of them 
in the slave states stripped of every comfort of life, desti- 
tute of friends, and knowing not where to flee for succor 
and safet}^ and in this deplorable condition we passed b}' 
and left them, supposing their complicated suOerings 
would soon push them out of existence ; but Thou didst 
put it into the hearts of Thy Samaritans to bring these 
wretched outcasts into this great inn which we inhabit, 
and to administer to their necessities. With the assistance 
of our ally, Prejudice, we thought before this to have con- 
vinced the world that they were made of more base ma- 
terial than we white people ; but Thy great Apostle Paul 
declared that Thou hast ' made of one blood all nations 
of men.' We have long insisted that their color was ;i 
sufficient proof that they are of a distinct race greatlv in- 
ferior to us ; but Thou hast permitted Blumenbach, Smith 
and others to write so wisely upon the subject that many 
of the white people' themselves now begin to think that 
climate, state of societ}^ manner of living, etc., have pro- 
duced the external differences which are apparent between 
them and us. We have contended again that the negroes 
are ver}^ deficient in point of intellect ; but Thou hast suf- 
fered it to enter into the hearts of some of Thy believers 
to give some of them literar}^ knowledge, and so we are 
likely to be overset in this our favorite hypothesis. We 
thought because we had the power it would be well enough 
to take away from them their natural, inherent and un- 
alienable rights and privileges ; but Thou hast put it into 
the hearts of certain persons in this state to think that we 
ought to do unto all men as we would wisli them to do 
unto us. 

" Now we are summoned to give up our stewardship, and 
seeing that we have not succeeded in our attempts to wrest 
Thy attributes out of Th}- hands ; and fearing from Thy 



24 



THE RANK OF 



many gracious promises and declarations in their favor 
that some of this despised people have been admitted into 
the mansions of Thy everlasting rest ; we therefore humbly 
pray Thee that Thou will be graciously pleased to cast 
their black souls out of heaven before our spirits reach 
there ; for it has been much against our will to dwell 
amongst them the few days of this life ; and how can we 
bear the idea of being confined among them to all etern- 
ity?" 

The following is from the Chester and Delawaj-e Feder- 
alist, quoted on page 113 : 

"All is still as the grave. We boast that ours is the land 
of freedom. Here liberty dwells ; this is the spot where 
the sacred tree flourishes, spreading its branches east and 
west, shading, protecting, the whole land. Our consti- 
tution solemnly declares that all men are born equally free. 
The enslaved and oppressed of Europe are welcomed to 
our shores as an asylum from oppression. We rub our 
hands and congratulate one another that we are the most 
free people on earth. Gracious heavens ! and is it yet true 
that more than twelve hundred thousand of our fellow- 
creatures are doomed, themselves and their posterity, to 
hopeless bondage? Where are our abolition societies? 
Are they weary in well-doing? Where are those intelli- 
gent, ardent, benevolent men who exist in ever^^ country, 
who step forward on great occasions, animate their fellow- 
men to exertion, and direct their efforts to the attainment 
of noble ends? Are the spirits of Wilberforce, Clarkson 
and Benezett extinct? Or is it true that nothing can be 
done? No — nothing can be done! Go home and repose 
on your pillows of down ; sleep away 3'Our lives in indo- 
lence and ease ; and let the expression — nothing can be 
done — satisfy your consciences. Let the husband be sep- 
arated from his wife, the mother from her little ones. Let 
the poor slave toil in hopeless misery-, and bleed beneath 



CTTARI.KS <)SlU>i;X. 25 

tlie lash of his taskmaster. It will be useless to disturb 
Congress with your petitions — nothing can be done.'' 

On page 169 is an article by " E. B.," a Virginian, which 
ably discusses the question both in its political and moral 
aspects. I quote : 

" It is not only absolutely right to devise some remedy 
for this evil, but it is absolutely necessary. We have shut 
our eyes and stopped our ears too long. Can we continue 
indifferent on so momentous a subject? We are called 
upon by honor, morality, and religion — by love for our 
country, ourselves, and our children. Let us not disre- 
gard these sacred obligations, but let us enter into a 
thorough investigation of the subject. Let us unite into 
select societies for the purpose of digesting a plan for the 
removal of this enormous evil, and, thus united in order 
and co-operating under the ties of virtue, honor, and love 
of our country, the difficulties attendant upon the subject 
w^ill vanish before the wisdom of the nation. * * * It is 
impossible that one man should be the property of another. 
The master can not derive his claim of property from the 
law of nature, because by that law all men are equally 
free and independent. He can not derive it from the 
principles of civil government, for government was insti- 
tuted for the common benefit, protection, and security of 
the community, and, when properly supported, admits no 
man or set of men to the possession of exxlusive privileges. 
He can not refer to contracts with individuals, nor to con- 
veyances from parents for their children, for no one will 
pretend to the existence of such contracts, and their valid- 
ity could not be supported if they really existed. It can 
not be rested upon law, for such a law must be, technically 
speaking, unconstitutional. The constitution defines the 
object of government and the rights of individuals. These 
form barriers which legislation can never pass. It may, 
therefore, be boldly affirmed that slaves are not property. 



26 THE RANK OF 

They are injured human beings, whose sufferings call 
loudly for redress." 

Mr. Osborn was one of the very first men of this coun- 
try to oppose the use of slave-grown produce, and he con- 
tinued personally faithful to this principle during his life ; 
while the Philanthrofist is clearly one of the first news- 
papers in the United States which espoused this duty. From 
an article copied from the Westchester Recorder, on page 
174, I quote the following in reference to the slave trade: 

"This great fountain of human blood that has been 
flowing on the continent of Africa for ages, whose streams 
have stained the shores of America and the West Indies, 
is kept in motion and supported by the consumers of the 
proceeds of slavery. They are the subscribers that fur- 
nish the fund by which the whole business is carried on. 
A merchant w]io loads his vessel in the West Indies with 
the proceeds of slavery does nearly as much at helping 
forward the slave trade as he that loads his vessel in Af- 
rica with slaves. They are both twisting the rope at dif- 
ferent ends. >i« * * It is something paradoxical that a 
man will refuse to buy a stolen sheep, or to eat a piece of 
one that is stolen, and should not have the same scruples 
respecting a stolen man." 

But I need not multiply these extracts, which I have 
given merely as illustrations of the spirit and make-up of 
the paper. I must not fail to mention, however, a very 
able and eloquent oration on slavery, by Thomas H. 
Genin, delivered at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, on the i8th of 
May, 1818, which is printed in the second volume, begin- 
ning on page 77. Mr. Genin came from New York to 
Ohio the year before, and was the intimate friend of Mr. 
Osborn. He also shared the friendship of Charles Ham- 
mond, Benjamin Lundy and De Witt Clinton. He had 
considerable literary gifts, and was the correspondent of 
Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams ; and, although the 



CHARLES nsnoRX. 



27 



rhetoric of his oration is a Httle florid, he discusses the 
shivery question with great thoroughness, and evinces a 
surprising insight into the nature and working of the in- 
stitution. All the arguments and sophisms of the slave- 
holders with which the country has been familiar in later 
times are taken up and disposed of in this effort of more 
than seventy years ago as if he had been in the midst of 
the great conflict which so long afterward stirred the 
blood of both sections of the Union. The speech is pro- 
phetic, and deserves to be preserved as a choice relic of 
the literature of abolitionism in its pioneer days. Let me 
add, that I find scattered through the pages of the Philan- 
thro-pist frequent selections of anti-slavery poems from 
Cowper, Shenstone, Montgomery and others, and I en- 
tertain no doubt whatever that its anti-slavery character is 
quite as clearly defined and uncompromising in tone as 
Lundy's Genius of Universal Emancipation, or James G. 
Birney's Philanthropist, published in Cincinnati in later 
years. ♦ 

The priority of Mr. Osborn in the establishment of tliis 
paper has already been shown. He sold his establishment 
to Elisha Bates, and not to Elihu Embree, as Mr. Greely 
states in his " Conflict" ; and Lundy, not liking the anti- 
slavery character of the paper under his management, as 
he declares in his account of these matters, began the pub- 
lication, at Mount Pleasant, of the Genius of Universal 
Emancipation, in January, 182 1, being three years and a 
half after the issue of the first number of the Philan- 
thropist. These facts are given in "The Life of Ben- 
jamin Lundy," compiled by Thomas Earle, and pub- 
lished in 1847. We there learn, on the authority of 
Lundy, in speaking of the previous establishment of the 
Philanthropist, that "proposals were issued by Charles 
Osborn for pul^lishing a paper at Mount Pleasant, to be 
entitled the Philanthropist. He stated in his prospectus 



28 THE RANK OF 

that he should discuss the subject of slavery in the col- 
umns of the paper. The idea now occurred to me that I 
might act efficiently for the cause of emancipation — that I 
could select articles (for I did not think of writing myself ) 
and have them published in the Philanthropist, and that I 
could also get subscribers to the publication. Engrossed 
with these thoughts, I went to work with alacrity. My 
leisure moments were now fully employed. When I sent 
my selections to Charles, I sometimes wrote him a few 
lines. After he had published the Philanthropist a few 
months, I was surprised at receiving from him a request 
that I should assist in editing it. The thought that I could 
do such a thing had not then even occurred to me. But 
on his repeating the request I consented to tr\', and from 
that moment, whenever I have thought that something 
ought to be done, my maxim has been, though doubtful 
of my ability, try. Although I resided ten miles frotn the 
office, and was extensively engaged in other business, I 
continued for some time to write editorial articles for the 
paper. At length Charles proposed to me to join him in 
the printing business, and to take upon myself the super- 
intendency of the office. After some deliberation I con- 
sented to accept the offer." It seems, however, from the 
narrative, that Lundy never joined Osborn in the printing 
business, owing to circumstances which soon after drew 
him to Missouri, and that his only connection with the 
Philanthropist was that of an agent for the paper, and the 
writer of occasional articles over fictitious signatures. He 
had nothing to do with originating it, or superintending 
its management, and acted solely in the capacity of a 
subordinate, and a diffident, but sympathetic and faithful, 
disciple ; and on his own showing the establishment of the 
the Genius of Universal Emancipation would never have 
been attempted if Mr. Osborn's successor had maintained 
the anti-slavery character of the Philanthropist under its 



CHARLES nsnORX. 2C) 

previous management, when Lundy himself was its agent 
and zealous friend. He is, therefore, himself my witness 
that the honor now so generally claimed for him of being 
the first of our anti-slavery pioneers is altogether unwar- 
ranted by facts. 

I have thus demonstrated ni_y proposition tluit Charles 
Osborn was the first to proclaim the doctrine of immediate 
and unconditional emancipation, and that he, and not 
Lundy, became the pioneer of modern abolitionism by 
editing and publishing the first anti-slavery paper in the 
United States. On these points history has been made to 
bear false witness, and its record should be corrected. 
This correction will not pluck a single laurel from the 
saintly brow of Benjamin Lundy. It will be his imperish- 
able honor that in his Aouth he surrendered a lucrative 
business and the sweet joys of home at the bidding of his 
conscience, and made himself a wanderer on the earth in 
the effort to rouse the consciences of men to the sin of 
slavery. His devotion to humanity was a divine fascin- 
ation, and he literally gave up all for the slave. He is 
also entitled to the signal honor, as Oliver Johnson says, 
of" putting the burning torch of liberty into the hands of 
the man raised up by Providence to lead the new crusade 
against the slave power"; but Mr. Osborn kindled the 
blaze which lighted this torch of his Qiiaker disciple. 
When Lundy afterward met Garrison in Boston, in 1828, 
Mr. Osborn was his reference ; and in 1847, when Mr. 
Garrison, in Cleveland, Ohio, met a son of Mr. Osborn, 
who still survives, he said to him: "Charles Osborn is 
the father of all of us abolitionists." He was, in fact, the 
real germ of the grand movement that drew into its service 
so many heroes and martyrs as it advanced, and finally 
swept slavery fi'om the land, just as the quiet lakelet at 
the head of the Mississippi is the source of the great river 
which is swelled by its tributaries till lost in the gulf Nor 



so 



THE RAXK OF 



can the claim thus made weaken in any degree the historic 
position of Mr. Garrison as the moral hero of the move- 
ment. His indebtedness to Lundy he always frankly ac- 
knowledged ; and, if the doctrine of immediate and un- 
conditional emancipation was announced by others while 
he was a school-boy, it can not be set down to his dis- 
credit, nor does it follow, by any means, that he borrowed 
it from anyone. I believe it was the inevitable outcropping 
of his moral constitution, and came to him with the 
authority of a divine command. He did not need to take 
it at second-hand, while his overmastering personality pop- 
ularized it, and imparted to it a meaning and power which 
quite naturally won for him the honor of its paternity. 

In justice to my subject, I must not conclude this article 
without a brief reference to the controversy already al- 
luded to, in which Mr. Osborn became involved in his 
later life with the society in which he had so long been a 
prominent member. In dealing with this subject, I shall 
speak plainly, but in no unfriendly spirit, respecting this 
most comely and praiseworthy body of religionists. Of 
Quaker parentage and training myself, my predilections 
incline me strongly in their favor. During my protracted 
connection with anti-slavery politics in one of the strong- 
holds of these people in eastern Indiana, they were unit- 
edly and earnestly my friends, and in what I shall now 
say I am conscious of no other motive than the service of 
the truth. 

The year after Mr. Osborn sold his newspaper establish- 
ment he removed to Indiana. Several considerations in- 
duced him to abandon the publication of his paper. He 
desired to go further west, where his small resources 
would enable him to procure land for his children. He 
also felt that the influence of his paper was seriously 
thwarted by the mischievous and unmanageable scheme 
ot colonization ; while he believed he could more effec- 



riiARLER nsnnnx. 3j 

lively serve the cause of freedom in the wider field of the 
traveling ministry, in which Woolman had labored with 
such remarkable results. In 1832, when the anti-slavery 
agitation had reached its fervent heat under the inspira- 
tion and leadership of Garrison, Mr. Osborn gave his 
heart to the work with renewed zeal. While in England 
in that year he met Elliot Cresson, an agent of the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society, who begged him not to say any- 
thing that would hinder the raising of funds in aid of its 
work ; but Mr. Osborn replied that he would not Cease to 
expose its evil designs at home and abroad, and he made 
Cresson's mission a failure. His anti-slavery zeal fully 
kept pace with the multiplying aggressions of slavery, 
and, in the winter of 1839, he visited the eastern states, 
where he found the dominating influences among Friends 
decidedly opposed to his testimonies, and inclined to keep 
him silent, but he would not be fettered, and spoke out his 
whole mind freely. Some of his sermons were reported 
for the anti-slavery newspapers, and these lines of Whit- 
tier, inspired by a similar circumstance, were quoted as 
fitly applying to this intrepid assertion of the right of free 
speech : 

"Thank God for the token ! one lip is still free — 
One spirit untrammeled, unbending one knee ; 
Like the oak of the mountain, deep-rooted and firm, 
Erect when the multitude bend to the storm ; 
When traitors to freedom, and honor, and God, 
Are bowed at an idol polluted with blood ; 
When the recreant North has forgotten her trust, 
And the life of her honor is low in the dust — 
Thank God that one arm from the shackles has broken ! 
Thank God that one man as a fyre-man has spoken ! '" 

On his return to the west he found that the ruling spirits 
in the Indiana Yearly Meeting had also taken a very de- 
cided stand against the abolitionists. The colonization 
members of the society, by some strange and unaccount- 



,2 THE RANK OF 

able means, had gained the ascendancy over its anti-slav- 
ery members, and he was greatly troubled in mind re- 
specting the situation in which he found himself placed. 
In the year 1841 the Indiana Yearly Meeting sanctioned 
a letter of advice which had been previously issued by the 
meeting for sufferings to its monthly and quarterly meet- 
ings, forbidding the use of their meeting-houses for anti- 
slavery lectures, and the joining in anti-slavery organiza- 
tions " with those who do riot profess to wait for Divine 
direction in such important concerns." The meeting also 
advised against anti-slavery publications by Friends with- 
out first submitting them to " the examination of a meet- 
ing for sufferings." This advice was unauthorized by the 
discipline of the society, and directly opposed to the well- 
known practice of Friends on both sides of the Atlantic. 
It showed that the power of slavery, which had taken 
captive over religious denominations throughout the coun- 
try, had at last crept into the society, and was dictating 
its action. Charles Osborn was then a member of f^e 
meeting for sufferings, which is a delegated body in the 
society acting under appointment, like a committee, to 
transact important business in the interim of the regular 
sessions of the Yearly Meeting ; and he and seven other 
anti-slavery members occupying the same position declined 
to obey this prohibitory advice. In doing so they justified 
themselves by the discipline and usages of the society and 
its well-known testimonies against slavery. They felt im- 
peratively bound by their consciences to take this course, 
and that to do otherwise would be to recognize the infalli- 
bility of the Yearly Meeting and its right to bind them in 
all cases whatsoever. For this action these eight mem- 
bers were summarily removed from their positions as 
" disqualified," and their places filled by those who were 
willing to become the instruments of the Yearly Meeting 
in its warfare against the abolitionists. 



CHARLES OSnORX. ^^ 

What was to be done? These men had not violated the 
discipline of the society, or gone counter to any of its rec- 
ognized practices and testimonies. They were not accused 
of -any unsoundness in doctrine ; and yet, without any for- 
mal charges of misconduct in any particular, and by an 
act of wanton usurpation, they were degraded from the 
places they had held. They begged that the reasons for 
this action might be spread upon the minutes as a matter 
of simple justice to themselves, and in order that thev 
might not stand recorded as transgressors, and Mr. Os- 
born pleaded for this in a speech of much power and full 
of pathos and tenderness ; but this petition was disre- 
garded, and the perfectly unprecedented and arbitrary 
proceeding was carried out. If they submitted to this act 
of despotism they would be sharers in the apostacy of the 
society from its testimonies, and fellow-laborers with it 
against the slave. If they persisted in their disobedience 
they would, of course, be disowned for thus obeying their 
own consciences. They saw but one honorable or decent 
alternative. As lovers of the Society of Friends, and sin- 
cere believers in its doctrines and discipline, they could 
go out of the body which had cast them off for their anti- 
slavery principles and violated its discipline for that pur- 
pose, and organize a society of their own, with its ma- 
cliinery of monthly, quarterly and yearh' meetings, and 
free from all pro-slavery domination. This they did, 
styling themselves the Society of Anti-Slavery Friends. 
They were driven out of the old body for their abolition- 
ism, and Charles Osborn was spoken of as " gone, fallen, 
and out of the life," for no other cause. This occurred in 
1842, at the yearly meeting which gave Henry Clay, the 
owner of fifty slaves and president of the American Col- 
onization Society, a seat among the ruling elders, and 
who, in a public speech the da}^ before, had declared that 
" the slaves must be prepared for freedom before they can 
3 



34 



THE RANK OF 



receive that great boon," and that " the Society of Friends 
take the right stand in relation to this subject." Histor}^ 
was thus repeating the old story of "Pilate and Herod 
friends," and illustrating the desire of the society, as ex- 
pressed by its meeting for sufferings in 1841, to "retain 
the place and influence" which it had "heretofore had 
with the rulers of our land." There was a peculiar sting 
in the saying of Mr. Osborn afterward that these Friends 
" deemed it a departure from the well-known principles of 
the society to do anything in the anti-slavery cause with- 
out a divine impulse and clear opening in the light of 
truth leading thereto ; but for their opposition to the abo- 
litionists they had no impulse, no opening, to wait for." 

It will probably be news to thousands that the Quakers 
thus succumbed to the power of slavery ; but such is the 
melancholy fact, and they have no right to " escape his- 
tory.'' Among the rank and file of the bod}^ in Indiana 
there were doubtless very many true anti-slavery men ; but 
at the time of which I speak the chief rulers believed in 
colonization and gradual emancipation. They took special 
pains, in dealing with legislative bodies, slave-holders and 
the public, to inform them that they had no connection, in 
any way, with abolitionism. They so assured Henry Clay 
while in Richmond. Leading members frequently reiter- 
ated the charge that abolitionists had " put back the cause 
of emancipation" ; and some of them insisted that aiding 
"slaves on their way to Canada involved men in the crime 
of man-stealing. Many of the rulers of the denomination 
in the eastern, as well as the western, States had " their 
ears filled with cotton." They discoursed very piously 
about the attempt of abolitionists "to abolish slavery in 
their own strength," and argued that paying men for anti- 
slavery lectures was opposed to the Quaker testimony 
against a "hireling ministry." Ministers, elders and 
overseers, took the lead in these reactionarv proceedings ; 



riTARLES osnonx. 3^ 

and it was one of the curiosities of human nature to find 
the followers of John Woolman and Anthony Benezett 
laboring with their brethren for attending anti-slavery 
meetings, closing the doors of their churches against anti- 
slavery lectures, and setting up a system of espionage over 
the publication of anti-slavery articles by members of the 
society. Such men as Isaac T. Hopper, among the Hick- 
site Friends, and Arnold l^uflum, among the Orthodox, 
were disowned for their fidelity to the slave. This work of 
proscription was generally based upon some false pretense, 
as was the fact in the case of Mr. Buflum. In dealinL^ 
with Mr.*^Osborn and his associates, the Indiana year]}' 
meeting did its best to cover up the ugly fact that they 
were degraded on account of their anti-slavery principles. 
With great dexterity in the use of scripture, much circum- 
locution, and a cunning and tergiversation that would 
have won the heart of Talle3-rand or Loyola, the}^ pla3'ed 
their game of ecclesiastical tyranny ; but the facts of the 
transaction, as now seen in the clear perspective of his- 
tory, leave them perfectly unmasked. I have carefullv 
examined the documents and papers pertaining to tiie con- 
troversy on both sides, and speak from the record. Strange 
as it may seem, the claims of justice were so completelv 
subordinated to the peace and unity of the society that 
even a deputation of English Friends, who came over as 
mediators in this trouble, utterly refused to look into the 
merits of the controversy, and insisted upon the uncon- 
ditional return of the seceding members to the body which 
had so flagrantly trampled upon their rights. Humanity 
was forgotten in the service of a sect, and C^iakerism 
itself disowned by its priesthood. 

But the anti-slavery movement took an unexpected 
turn. The annexation of Texas and the war with jNIexico 
roused the country, and poured a flood of light on the 
character and designs of the slave-holding interest. The 



36 THE RANK OF 

anti-slavery agitation of 1848 and the passage of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Act of 1850 brought large reinforcements to the 
cause of freedom. The repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise and the struggle to make Kansas a slave State still 
further enlightened the people. The dullest scholars be- 
gan to get their lessons. Slave-holding madness so 
anointed the eyes of the people that the cloven feet of 
abolitionism disappeared, and the Quakers, like other 
religious bodies, began to take a new view of their duties. 
" The v^orld," on which they turned their backs in 1841 to 
avoid its " contamination," had at last taught them more 
wisdom than any "divine impulse" had ever been able 
to impart. They became themselves abolitionists, and 
gloried in the very cause which provoked their c^ontempt 
during the ugly apostasy they had parenthesized into the 
beautiful anti-slavery record of the sect. 

But did they do justice to the men they had persecuted 
for righteousness' sake? Did they make any official ac- 
knowledgement of the wrong they had done, as did other 
religious denominations in like cases? No. Individual 
members solicited the seceders to return to the fold. They 
said to them, "Come back to us! No questions will be 
asked, and no conditions exacted. Make no disturbance, 
but come and go with us." Most of the seceders finally 
returned, but some of them demanded an amendment of 
the minutes of the society which should recognize the in- 
justice done them for their anti-slavery fidelity. This was 
denied in all such cases, and they stand on the records as 
"disqualified" members. Charles Osborn died in 1850, 
a grieved and sorely-disappointed old man, and his grief 
would not have been assuaged if he could have foreseen 
the action of the society in refusing to correct its records 
after it had espoused the very principles for the advocacy 
of which he had been exiled from its bosom. Harshly 
and unjustly as lie had been treated, he would scarcely 



CHARLES oSHoIiX. y^ 

have believed this possible. But the society was handi- 
capped by its record. Much as it owed Mr. Osborn, mor- 
ally and spiritually, its love of consistency and the crav- 
enness of human nature triumphed over its conscience. It 
could not do him justice without condemning itself. It 
could not espouse his cause as a faithful minister of the 
Gospel and an anti-slavery prophet without advertising its 
recreancy to humanity and its injustice to a great-hearted 
and brave man. 

But the friends of humanity, irrespective of sect or party, 
should join in fitly honoring him. During his life aboli- 
tionism was a despised thing. He did not live to see the 
glory which was so soon to come, nor anticipate its com- 
ing. As to his reputation, he took no thought for the 
morrow. The newspaper which proves his right to be 
ranked as the first of our anti-slavery pioneers seems only 
to have been preserved by an accident. The memory of 
other faithful pioneers has been carefully and lovingly 
guarded ; but history has slighted his record, and liberty, 
in searching for her jewels, has strangely overlooked his 
name. Touched by these facts, and believing that "no 
power can die that ever wrought for truth,'* I have felt 
commanded to do my part in the work of adding a new 
star to the galaxy of freedom, a new name to the roll-call 
of reformers. If I have succeeded in any degree in this 
labor of love, I shall rejoice ; but, in any event, I shall 
share the satisfaction which attends a sincere endeavor to 
serve the truth. 



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